Dubbel D'HiverMicrobrasserie Le Castor

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Bottle: Poured a hazy amber color ale with a medium size foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma consists of light candi sugar notes, dry raisins and cereal notes. Taste is also dominated by sweet raisins notes with some residual sugar and some easily discernable cereal notes. Body is about average for style with good carbonation and no apparent alcohol.

Le Castor Dubbel D'Hiver looks a little malnourished, despite that it's brewed with grapes. More amber than brown at most angles, it has a terra cotta glow and pristine clarity. Head is at a minimum, though the sparse amount present does well to stick around (and even stick to the glass a little).

It smells as though the beer's intensely spiced even if it hasn't been. Clove, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, mace, allspice... each and every one distinctly, magically appear in the aroma without appearing on the ingredients list. In the words of Kramer: Mother Nature's a mad scientist!

If you're wondering what's responsible for all that spicy seasoning, the answer is yeast. But the bulk of its power lies in its aromatics; the flavour isn't nearly so explosive. Subtract the yeast and, frankly, there isn't much else. The other ingredients really don't carry their weight. Specifically the malt doesn't...

The mouthfeel is thin and mildly cloying. Aside from a teaspoon of brown sugar and maybe a caramel square or two, there's really little flavour beyond the baking spices and figgy, plummy dried fruit notes. As for the grapes, this really tastes more like raisins. And there's not even a nuance of red wine.

Dubbel D'Hiver is a typical North American take on the style: thin, semi-cloying, lightly boozy, and overly reliant on dried fruit flavours and rambunctious yeast. It is nowhere as deep or impressive as a Trappist or even commercial Abbaye offering from Belgium. It's OK, but Le Castor makes far better beers.